We hope everyone has been enjoying Apple Music and exploring all of its exciting features. As with all new friends, it takes a little bit of time to get to know and understand how best to work with. To help, here are 6 Best Practices that you can follow to start maximizing your streams on the service.
Connect
First, welcome to Apple Music Connect, an exciting new platform that allows artists to share pretty much any content they like, as with any social media platform. Think about engaging content fans will want to see — snippets of new tracks, candid backstage or tour-bus shots, behind-the-scenes videos, you name it. Apple is also sharing compelling audio and video content from Connect on the Apple Music main page, so be creative! You’ll need to have your profile verified to start using this new platform — check your client newsletter to find out how. Once Apple has processed the verification, the email addresses assigned to the artist page will receive an email directly from Apple with further instructions for activating the Connect profile. You can start posting by following these handy instructions from Apple and read up more on the Connect service in our FAQs.
Linking
In addition to linking from your websites and socials to iTunes, you are now also able to link to Apple Music. As an extra bonus, when you post an Apple Music link on Facebook, it automatically embeds a playlist widget, which you will learn more about in the Widgets section below.
If you’ve regularly been in the practice of linking to the iTunes store, be aware that these links will now open up Apple Music by default. If you want to continue to link to the iTunes store, the easiest way to obtain the correct link is by searching for the artist, album or song in Link Maker. Be sure to use the drop-down “Media Type” menu under the search bar to indicate the service to which you want to link.
Social Media
You’ll also want to note Apple Music’s new social media handles, which you can find below:
- Apple Music on Twitter: @AppleMusic
- Apple Music on Facebook: AppleMusic
- Apple Music on Instagram: @AppleMusic
Apple Music will no longer be using “iTunes” social handles for any music social activity, so be sure to tag the handles above and specify “Apple Music” or use #AppleMusic in social media copy.
Listen on Apple Music, Buy on iTunes
With the new service have come some new badges. The Listen on Apple Music and Buy on iTunes badges may be used in your marketing communications promoting content on either of the services, including email, digital advertising, apps, websites, etc. Download the Listen on Apple Music badge here and the Buy on iTunes badge here. Most communication should display either the Apple Music or iTunes badge but both may be used for certain high profile communications. Any usage of this kind would need to be approved by Apple Music.
Messaging
Be sure to use clear messaging when promoting your music on Apple Music or iTunes. When driving fans to Apple Music, opt for words such as “listen,” “hear” or “playing” rather than “stream” or “streaming.” When driving fans to iTunes, be sure to use clear wording that you are driving to the download store such as “Buy on iTunes.” You can combine the messaging, but you’ll want to distinguish the offers: “Listen to <artist’s> new song on Apple Music or buy it on iTunes.”
Widgets
Any music on Apple Music can now be turned into a preview player that can be embedded on any website. To use this feature, copy and paste this playlist link; it will construct an embeddable widget with simple options to adjust the size to provide a good fit on any site, desktop or mobile.
Please note! The playlist is sharing content that is behind the Apple Music pay-wall and will therefore only feature 30-second song previews of all the tracks in the playlist unless the user is a logged-in Apple Music subscriber. It’s a good way to give people a taste of your music to encourage them to check it out further.
If you have any questions about using the new service, linking to Apple Music or iTunes and using the badges, please reach out to your Orchard client manager.
This post was originally published in July, 2015 and updated in February 2016 to reflect the latest practices.
